The mission of the UCLA/CIT MSTP is to educate outstanding physician-scientist for the 21st century, to fulfill this mission, our goals are: 1) recruit the brightest and most accomplished students, 2) provide an optimum environment for achieving their education and research goals, 3) to encourage individual thinking, problem solving and lifelong learning, and 4) to provide a comprehensive support system to meet the trainees' needs. The affiliation agreement entered into with CIT in 1997 has been successful in attracting applicants to the MSTP with interests and background in quantitative sciences, engineering and physical chemistry. The program is structured for seven years of study with three and a half years of medical school. Students perform three research rotations prior to initiating the PhD degree. Student may enter the PhD programs in Biological Chemistry, Biomathematics, Biomedical Physics, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Human Genetics, Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, Neurobiology, Experimental Pathology, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Physiology, Psychology, Public Health and interdepartmental programs in Molecular Biology, Neurosciences, Neuroengineering and Biomedical Engineering. Trainees have also chosen to study health economics and Philosophy (bioethics). We propose to increase the size of the program from 10% to 15% of the incoming medical school class or 18 students per year. We are requesting an increase of 6 trainee positions from this grant, from 34 to 40 trainee positions. We believe that with increasing interest in the combined programs of UCLA and CIT and the strength of the applicant pool we have seen in recent years, we can recruit strong candidates for physician-scientist training who will remain in academic medicine and research careers. Both UCLA and CIT have both the physical plant and financial resources in addition to strong and committed faculty to train the next generation of scientists. In 2004, the UCLA Medical Center will open with the most advanced health care services available to patients and families. An additional 400,000 square feet of research space and a new medical school building are planned or under construction. Capital projects at CIT are also underway with a new integrative biology building, the Broad Center, in progress. Both institutions are actively recruiting new faculty to fulfill their research missions and to train new, young scientists.